The invention relates to a device for pulling the front end of a feed of tubular casing through the casing brake and the closing device, situated in a housing, for an apportioning filling machine for paste-like filling goods, having a filling tube which contains the casing feed, the casing brake being positioned so that it can be pulled away from the orifice of the filling tube, and having a pull-through rod for the front end of the casing which can be hung in a clamping hook on the free end of the rod, the pull-through rod being movable from a working position, in which it passes through the casing brake and closing device and in which the clamping hook is located near the orifice of the filling tube, to an idle position in which the pull-through rod is swiveled out with the clamping hook.
Such a threading device for tubular packagings is known from DE 33 05 362 C2. As described therein, the piston rod of a lifting device which can be swung from a swiveled-out idle position to a working position which is coaxial with the filling tube has a gripping hook on its free end, and can be extended toward the filling tube through the closing device and the casing brake. The front end of the casing feed (“pleated casing”) which is pushed accordion-style onto the filling tube can then be hung in the hook of the pull-through rod, fastened there, and pulled through the casing brake and the closing device by pulling the piston rod back.
The casing pull-through device known from DE 23 43 103 also operates using a hook situated on the free end of a slightly curved pull-through rod. As described therein, two levers linked by multiple rods are provided, on the one end the casing brake being attached so that it can be swiveled out from the filling tube, and on the other end the pull-through rod being fastened, and both are swiveled in, together or optionally toward the filling tube from the side. A closing device is not provided.
These known devices can no longer meet the demands for speed and reliability for introducing and passing the front end of casing feeds through the casing brake and a subsequent closing device, taking into consideration that for the high speed of modern automatic filling and apportioning machines, changing out the casing feed on the filling tube represents a significant additional time factor with a corresponding impairment of efficiency. The object of the invention, therefore, is to obviate this disadvantage.